Sarah McClachlan
Laws of Illusion

I’ve been a Sarah McLachlan listener since college, so I was excited when I got the opportunity from One2One Network to review her first studio album of brand new material in 7 years, Laws of Illusion. The first half of the album is more hopeful-sounding than what I’m used to from Sarah, but it’s just as enjoyable as her music has always been. This project is just another (long-awaited!) example of why every one of Sarah McLachlan’s studio and live albums has been certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum by the RIAA over her two-decade career. Here are my off-the-cuff thoughts on each track.

Awakening – introduction a little long and “poppy” for my liking; Sarah’s familiar lilt; gets into a nice cadence as it progresses, though

Illusions Of Bliss – love the drums in the first bar; a feel-good love song; ending is abrupt

Loving You Is Easy – nice bouncy tune with a tinge of Sarah’s bluesy voice – a favorite so far; this is the first single of the album

Changes – getting more into Sarah’s bluesy voice at the beginning and climbs effortlessly to the soprano lilt I love

Sarah McLachlan

Forgiveness – the heartbreak song I love to hear Sarah sing

Rivers Of Love – fantastic bluesy song – another favorite

Love Come – flows well and you hear the wonderfully incorporated electric guitar that is a signature of Sarah’s music; this is quintessential Sarah to me

Out Of Tune – another prime example of why I so enjoy Sarah’s music and a great love song

Heartbreak – a little more pop-sounding, which will bode well for radio play, but not as good of a representation of Sarah

Don’t Give Up On Us – another nice radio-play song, with a better representation of Sarah’s style and sound

U Want Me 2 – another fantastic merging of lilt and electric guitar, and another favorite

Bring On The Wonder – a lullaby-esque, ethereal loveliness to end with

Bonus Track: Love Come – a splendid acoustic rendering of the song that showcases Sarah’s ability to make you feel the heartbreak in the lyrics

Disclosure:

I received a complimentary cd as a thank-you for this review.

This is my fourth year as a MOPS mom. I wish I had known about MOPS 10 years ago when I was pregnant with Brandon. Over the last several years, I’ve been intrigued by the themes and how they manage to combine the “down here-ness” of mothering with the “up there-ness” of God. Sometimes it just seems that mothering is so far removed from Heaven that it’s Hell.

And sometimes it is.

That’s where MOPS comes in – the support, both from my local group and the resources I receive as a member, have been instrumental in keeping my sanity as a mom.

This year’s theme is “Momology – the Art and Science of Mothering.” There’s a doozy, huh? But really, when you think about it – it is an art and a science. There’s an art in the creative solutions that moms come up with on a daily basis, and a science in the approach of applying those creative solutions to see what will work with your family. I may be a creative person, but let’s face it: sometimes we’re just too worn out and overwhelmed by mothering to come up with solutions anymore.

Momology, A Mom’s Guide to Shaping Great Kids by Shelly Radic just might be your mothering textbook with solutions from other “Momologists” that have been where you are. You’ll find personal anecdotes from other MOPS moms describing their mothering experiments, as well as their masterpieces and flops. Plus, there’s a wealth of information from experts to give you confidence and understanding as you put on your lab coat (or smock, if you’re messy like me). Whether you’re a right-brained mom or a left-brained mom, you’ll find something in this book for you.

This year’s MOPS theme book is a book to study. You could even use this book for a book group or small group study. The book is put together wonderfully for moms that don’t have a lot of time. Each chapter is broken down into sections that you can read through fairly quickly. But don’t let that fool you – these sections are cuts of meat, not spoons of applesauce! The questions at the end of each section will have you really thinking about your mothering and the hows and whys behind it.  Now, don’t let that frighten you. Trust me, if you can handle labor, you can handle this book, and you’ll be a better mom for it!

And that’s what MOPS – and mothering – is all about: making a better world.

Momology is available June 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Many thanks to MOPS and Revell for providing a complimentary copy of the book to facilitate my reveiw!

"An Offering to Venus"

Ok, so not really, unless I’m a Willendorf Venus, but a goddess is a goddess, right? Sadly, the idea of goddess-like beauty, by and large, is that of a slender woman.

Slender, I ain’t.

We’ve all dieted. We’ve all failed. We’ve all felt “fat.” But what’s fat? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there are scientific charts and all that, but culturally, what is fat? In America, fat seems to be a body fat ratio over 15% (healthy ratios are between 21-31%, by the way). In Polynesian and other tropical cultures, that’s considered sickly.

Even history has blurred the lines of the definition. Look at the art of Titian and classical/baroque artists and compare it to today’s models. Even Botticelli’s Venus – the epitome of beauty – would be considered “fat” by the standards of today’s western culture. Dare she have the rounded belly of a human with a uterus? Ladies, did it ever occur to you that a flat stomach is well nigh impossible for us because we have additional organs there that men don’t have? We have an amazing uterus that can cradle and sustain life, yet we want to hide its existence.

It’s all very aggravating and disgusting to me – not because I am a “large woman” (I held the same views when I was very thin), but because it impedes women’s confidence. And – believe it or not – her sensuality.

Okay, okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now…

Thankfully, I’ve begun to see a trend arising in which women are encouraged not to diet, but to eat intelligently. Among those intelligent eating decisions is increasing protein intake. What if you don’t want to eat more meat, though? What if you’ve had all the beans you can stand?

Yoplait to the rescue! Their new Yoplait Greek yogurt line has 12-14 grams of protein, depending on which of the four flavors you’re enjoying. That’s on average twice the amount of protein in other leading-brand yogurts. I got the chance to review the noms from Yoplait and MyBlogSpark recently.

Opa!

Yoplait Greek has four flavors currently available: plain, strawberry, blueberry, and honey vanilla. I received two coupons for free Yoplait Greek yogurt to try for my review, so I chose strawberry and honey vanilla. Before I could try them, my daughter Sarah decided to eat the strawberry. I asked her what she thought and she said, “It was really good!” I ate the honey vanilla before she could get her little hands on it, then went to the store to get some strawberry for myself.

If you like the sharpness of traditional Greek cuisine, you’ll love these yogurts. I’m a mellow flavor girl myself, so I wasn’t overly fond of the flavor. My husband who likes food that “bites back” liked both the strawberry and the honey vanilla flavors I shared with him. Okay, he finished them off.

I also got a box of  ”Nourish Your Inner Goddess” goodies from Yoplait and MyBlogSpark in appreciation of my review. Tell me what woman doesn’t like a little pampering? Heck, seven-year-old Sarah has carried off my massager, and I have no doubt she’s used both the nail brush and the scrubbing sponge in the shower. I’m tellin’ ya, though – that scrubbing sponge? Well, to borrow from the Greeks again:

Opa!

You want it, don’t you? I know you do. That’s okay, because I can hook you up. Yoplait and MyBlogSpark also gave me the opportunity to give one of you a “Nourish Your Inner Goddess” prize pack including two VIP coupons* for your own Yoplait Greek yogurt and pampering goodies you see in the picture.

You totally love me now, don’t you?

*Mandatory Entry*: Tell us what kind of goddess you are. Are you more like Hestia, the Greek goddess of hearth and home, or Aphrodite? Are you a warrior Athena or an agricultural Demeter?

Extra Entries:

• Tweet this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to the tweet. This can be done once each day. Neato trick: just click that link and it will open a new window with the status filled in for you – all you have to do is click update!
  visit @3stairs to win a pampering prize from Yoplait and MyBlogSpark! http://bit.ly/aJuDf6
• Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment letting me know your Twitter user name.
• Subscribe to 3Stairs and leave a comment letting me know if you subscribed with RSS or via e-mail.

• By RSS:
• Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to your post.
• Add a 3Stairs button to your blog and leave a comment with a link to your blog so we can visit!
  

I’ll let Random.org choose a winner on June 21, so get your entries in by 11:59 pm on Sunday, June 20!

Disclosure:

I received two coupons for a free cup of Yoplait Greek yogurt and a pampering prize pack as a thank-you for this review and hosting this giveaway. I did not receive any other compensation for this giveaway.

*This coupon offer for a free cup of Yoplait Greek yogurt is not valid in some states, including California, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Tennessee.

I began today to read for my local library’s (Mineola Memorial Library) Spring Reading Challenge. Being the gadget-bound nerd I am, I began by reading children’s books to my daughter from my iPhone, then continued by listening to an audio book on it. Here, my GoodReads review of the audio book I enjoyed tonight.

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A thoroughly enjoyable short story told by “a friend” of Holmes. Gaiman perfectly captures the elite observational skills of the detective and manages to throw in several surprises despite the shortness of the story.

View all my reviews >>

As further information, I came to know of Gaiman via Twitter, when I saw someone else post about the eminent demise of his beloved cat Zoe. It is sad, I know, that I wasn’t aware of him being the writer of Coraline (I haven’t seen it, though Michael and the children watched part of it today, oddly enough). I had been thinking of listening to Coraline or Stardust because I had chosen him as the author whose initials are in the word spring (NG), but when I read the description of A Study in Emerald, I knew it was the book for which I was looking. After this first taste, I can assure you I will be remedying my sad lack of Gaiman reading forthwith!

outoftheboxsampler.blogspot.com

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner from the Out of the Box Sampler review and giveaway!

Have you been waiting on pins and needles? Holding your breath? Wringing your hands? Well, wait, hold, and wring no more – we are ready to announce the winner of the April Out of the Box Sampler!

Okay, I just have to say this…
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
Don’t ask why. I have no idea. It was just stuck in my head and if I didn’t get it out it was going to make my brain explode.

*ahem*

Anyway, now back to our regularly-scheduled announcement: Our handy-dandy random number generator chose comment number 37:

Jennifer from Giveaways and More! is the lucky winner of this giveaway! I’ve sent her an e-mail notifying her of her glorious victory. Ok, grandiose luck. At any rate, she has 48 hours to respond before I’m forced to choose another person with even grandioser luck. I know it’s not a word. I don’t care.

Bummed that you didn’t win? Don’t fret – the April sampler boxes go on sale tomorrow, April 6! Just click on that button right down there and it’ll take you right to the ordering page.

April boxes go on sale Tuesday, April 6!